Helping "Retired" Teachers to Stay in the Game

[Fred Bartels]

I'm interested in working on designing web-based learning environments that would allow teachers who are no longer 'school based' to continue to practice their craft and share their expertise.

 

I'd love to get feedback on some ideas I've been developing for this new approach to online learning.

I have a Prezi here which goes over the basic concepts.
http://prezi.com/7mcx3dha-ef0/brainstorming-plans-for-the-online-pr...

I'm working on developing a partial prototype here:
http://opus1.wikispaces.com/

Some additional thoughts on my blog here:
http://fredbartels.posterous.com/the-online-progressive-unschool-ne...

Finally, some more theoretical thinking which helped lead me to this approach.
http://eva2.wikispaces.com/

 

Thanks,

Fred

[Matt Montagne]

Fred,

 

I think this is a FANTASTIC idea. In so many ways I feel as though retired educators represent latent energy. How powerful would it be to provide folks with meaningful ways to continue to make contributions to the world of education even after they've retired in the traditional sense? A mechanism as you describe would allow folks to 'rewire' instead of 'retire.' 

 

Peggy George is a retired school administrator in Arizona...I'm amazed at how she continues to participate in school change even though she is no longer employed by a district. She runs the free Saturday morning 'Classroom 2.0 Live' sessions and regularly engages in online conversations and learning opportunities. Perhaps we could speak with Peggy to gain insight about how a project like this could play out. 

 

Thanks for sparking this idea!

 

Matt

[Fred Bartels]

Matt,

 

Thanks for your supportive comments! I've been inspired by Sigura Mitra's concept of the Granny Cloud. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxYgpQhsrU

 

This model makes it clear that retired teachers could make significant contributions from the comfort of their homes.

 

The Internet really is making the world smaller and allowing us all to connect and share in new ways.

 

I'll definitely take a look at Peggy George's work.

 

If anyone has any ideas about how to get retired faculty participating in this discussion please share.

 

Thanks,

 

Fred

[Lenore (Lonnie) Frey]

I've just emailed Sigura Mitra's concept of the Granny Cloud. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxYgpQhsrU to 3 of my sisters.

[Lenore (Lonnie) Frey]

Hi Fred ,
It's been a while since the spring blended learning course and I haven't stayed in touch. My hope, following our BL course was to involve Hispanic senior citizens in learning English using net books or iPads. Well, the people in the group I was attending are very social but they have ZERO interest in anything related to computers. They are lovely people and I'm learning Spanish so I have no regrets! I do love the phrase "rewire, not retire". Thanks for starting this forum. Lonnie

[Sarah Hanawald]

I've been thinking about this ever since you posted the discussion.  One of the things that keeps coming to mind is the rankings that eBay uses with sellers and buyers--the star rating that lets you know the other party's reputation.  

 

At my school, we are retaining a retiring teacher on a (very) small stipend to serve as a mentor to the fresh, newly minted teacher taking over his position.  This is the first time I've seen this attempted and I'm interested to see how it goes.  

 

What if we could do something similar online?  A retired master teacher could have a rating indicating his/her knowledge base and could serve online as an advisor to a practicing teacher--not necessarily a new one.  Would a podcast be appropriate?  Maybe NAIS could be the sponsoring organization?  Hmmm.

[Fred Bartels]

Sarah,

 

Thanks for sharing your interest. I suppose some sort of reputation rating system might be helpful, perhaps even necessary, although I wonder if it might be a turn off for retirees. I wonder if there might be other ways to determine knowledge/competency? Maybe potential volunteers could be asked to start a blog, and from the content of the blog a good reading could be obtained of a person's compatability, skills, knowledge and personality. It is a tricky subject, but one worth trying to solve as there are going to be steadily increasing numbers of retirees who want to continue making a contribution if a way can be found to do so that is not too stressful or demanding.

 

Fred